Muslim anger hits streets

By ANGELA GREGORY AND AGENCIES

Across the Muslim world, people have taken to the streets to denounce the United States-led strikes against Afghanistan.

In Indonesia, home of the world's largest Muslim population, police fired warning shots, teargas and water cannon in a clash with 400 Muslim protesters near the US embassy in Jakarta.

It was a clear sign authorities will clamp down on anti-American violence.

"Long live Osama! America is the terrorist! God is Great!" the protesters chanted.

Near the Afghan border, in the Pakistani town of Kuchlak, three anti-US protesters were shot dead by police as they tried to storm a bank.

Many people were reported to have been arrested and several injured in a second day of violent anti-American demonstrations in the western Pakistani province of Baluchistan.

In the Middle East, security forces of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat fired on demonstrators in the Gaza Strip, killing three people, including a 12-year-old boy and a 20-year-old student. At least 50 others were injured.

In Egypt, security sources said 20,000 students protested at universities across the country, some calling the attacks a "war against Islam".

In the conservative Gulf Arab state of Oman, university students marched in the capital, Muscat, protesting against the air strikes.

Shouting "America is the enemy of God" , students demonstrated for a second day in a rare display of anger in the conservative Gulf Arab region.

An Information Ministry official said the government would not halt the protest.

"They are exercising their basic human freedoms. We don't have the right to interfere," he said.

About 1000 students took part. Demonstrations are rare in Gulf Arab states, where political freedoms are restricted.

Iraq's Foreign Minister, Naji Sabri, said the strikes had brought several Muslim countries "to the brink of a big war being launched against Islamic states and Muslim people".

Regional power and US ally Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam, made no mention of the strikes on fellow Muslims.

But a quick poll of Saudis found broad criticism of the military strikes and strong support for terrorism advocate Osama bin Laden.

Sudan said it was against all forms of violence.

A cabinet statement expressed concern that the attacks on Afghanistan targeted "Muslim people".

Jordan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates backed what they termed international efforts to fight terrorism.

But they also said any action had to avoid killing innocent Afghan civilians.

Qatar supported the fight against extremists.

Pro-Western Arab Governments are taking at most a backseat role, providing discreet logistical support, airspace, landing rights and intelligence information.

Aware their support for America is not popular at home, they privately urge that strikes be "surgical" and followed by aid.

On the streets people are more outspoken.

"What the United States is doing is wrong," said Ahmed al-Shami, aged 30, a shopkeeper in the capital of Yemen, Sanaa.

Shocked British Muslims urged the US and Britain to put an immediate end to "knee-jerk" attacks on Afghanistan.

In India, which has one of the world's largest Muslim populations, the head of the biggest mosque said he would call on the country's 120 million Muslims to provide moral support for a jihad, or holy war, against the United States.

"I am not talking about arming and sending Indian Muslims to fight. Just our moral support," said Syed Ahmed Bukhari, chief cleric of the Jama Mosque in New Delhi.

In India's Muslim-majority state of Kashmir, hundreds of demonstrators protested against the strikes, shouting: "The superpower is Allah. Afghan warriors - we are with you."